Your College Might Want You to Drop Out

Secret #5 Your College Might Want You to Drop Out

According to Education-Portal.com, only about 58% of students at four-year institutions earn a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent within six years. Are colleges happy about this low rate of graduation, or sad? It’s hard to say because students generally take more costly, smaller classes in their later years at school, so students who drop out early actually help colleges balance their books.

One college administrator explains it this way:

“Yes, we want our students to graduate. It’s the right thing to do. Plus, a higher graduation rate makes us look better in rankings. But at the same time, the courses that generate the most income for us are the big lecture courses that students take in their first year or two of school. We generate vastly more income per classroom hour from big lecture courses than we do from small seminars with just a few students in the room.”